After a journey fraught with danger the Palestinian farmer Ahmad Abu Haneyya arrived in his field in Yanun village to the east of Nablus to start picking his olives with the beginning of the olive harvest season in Palestine.
Abu Haneyya told the PIC that every olive-picking season the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) and fanatic settlers try to prevent Palestinian farmers from reaching their lands recalling dozens of attacks committed by IOF soldiers against olive fields and farmers.
“The olive harvest season each year means getting ready for another round of confrontations with Israeli forces and settlers” Abu Haneyya said.
The Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture has announced that the olive harvest season officially starts this year on 10th October and will continue for few weeks.
Repeated attacks
The Palestinian farmers whose fields are close to Israeli settlements are worried that they may be denied access to their lands showing concern about the usual harassment they are yearly subjected to by the settlers which sometimes includes stealing olives and burning fields down.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture nearly 150000 dunums of land are planted with olive trees behind the separation wall that was built on the Palestinian lands of the occupied West Bank.
Head of the Palestinian Olive Council Fares al-Jabi in an interview with the PIC predicted that this year’s production of olive oil will approximately total 17000 tons.
Al-Jabi pointed out that this amount is small compared to the 24000 tons of olive oil produced in 2016. He explained that the reason for the decline in production is the high temperature accompanied with dust which has caused the soil to lose its moisture and the olives to shrink.
We are with you
The Agricultural Relief Association in Nablus has launched a campaign entitled “We Are With You” for the tenth year in a row which calls on Palestinian citizens to take to the fields to help farmers during the olive-picking season.
Coordinator of the campaign Khalid Mansour said that that campaign is launched to provide support for the farmers coming from villages affected by the separation wall and settlements explaining that it is a message to the Palestinian farmer that he is not alone.
The West Bank has more than 87 agricultural areas adjacent to the wall and some Israeli settlements.
Mansour said that effort are made to mobilize the largest number of volunteers to help in the most vulnerable areas which include eight sites this year. Between 100 to 200 local and foreign volunteers will work in each site.
